Asexual?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — This Gun for Hire
simest — 14 years ago(May 09, 2011 07:32 AM)
Anyone else come away from this with the feeling that Raven, through his abuse as a child and disconnection from humanity might be asexual? Or that the writers wrote his character to such an effect that he could be?
There is a moment where he rejects a gesture of affection from Veronica Lake - who at that point may be reluctantly attracted to him - and at no other point did I feel he was hinted at as homosexual.
Sure, Lake may not have been his cup of tea (though he'd be one of the few) but I really don't see him warming to anyone, female or male.
And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. -
simest — 14 years ago(May 31, 2011 11:48 PM)
What female lover? I don't remember him having one.
I don't recall him seeing anyone from the boarding house either. The only girl I remember there is the one he terrifies and whose dress he rips for scaring the cat.
And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. -
infinity8 — 14 years ago(July 13, 2011 07:27 PM)
Raven seemed sort of asexual by force of will. When he focused on survival and keeping his emotions at bay, he had no lady friends, as he told his slimy employer when the man brought up the concert tickets. However, he seemed to be sexually flattered by Ellen when she held him and kissed his cheek. I get the feeling that he was at least a little bit interested in her but when she comfirmed that she loved and was going to marry "the cop," he discounted any real romantic or sexual relationship.
Also, a man in Raven's line of work who seeks revenge might never come home. Even if he could control his temper, he knows that he is not stable enough to give a woman a real life with him. -
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out-of-towner — 13 years ago(August 16, 2012 11:13 PM)
I think a better term to describe Raven would be asocial, not asexual. As you mention in your post, he doesn't really warm up to anyone, female or male. He doesn't have any friends. He never allows himself to get close enough to anyone to even consider having sex. The only living thing he can relate to are cats. Why cats? As Raven says: "Their on their own. They don't need anybody."
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tesab-1 — 12 years ago(July 21, 2013 02:59 PM)
I agree, Out-of-Towner, about not having any friends. However, he can be asocial and asexual because of his horrific childhood. He does thaw to Veronica's character, though, by the time she gives him a kiss on the cheek. The first time she touches his shoulder, he almost reacts as if he had been burned and it hurt. He had built up such a protective shell, and he didn't want anyone to penetrate itrelationships equaled pain, from his experience.
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Tjanssen411 — 11 years ago(May 18, 2014 02:00 AM)
I think as played/directed he was just 'anti-social'
As much as I love Noir one of the problems I find with the Hays-code era projects is that the culture has changed in the 70+ years to the point that it's hard to distinguish between writing around the Code; being vague for the sake of Audience interpretation vs loose threads from editing (apparently there was over 10 minutes cut from the original version, some of which was flashback or prologue showing young Raven with the aunt
IF one were to remake/adapt the film in Modern Hollywood they'd crank the dial in one direction or another:
A show the nature of the abuse from the Aunt to make him clearly Asexual or
B make him a memetic sex god who'd seduce Ellen away from her cop-bf and escape with her at the end